His noble carriage and expressive physiognomy, 38. His fulfilment of duties as curé de Meudon, 39. Death aged seventy, 39. His death-bed, 39. Epitaphs for, 39. Further allusions to, 154. 170. Rabutin, family of, I. 214. Rabutin, Bussy, count de, cousin of madame de Sévigné, I. 217. _See_ Bussy-Rabutin. Racine, Jean, a rival of the great Corneille, I. 57. His comedy of "Les Plaideurs," 58. Pathos of his tragedy of "Bérénice," 58. His "Britannicus," 118. His daughter describes the demeanour of La Fontaine, 181. Is received at the court of Louis XIV., 279. Historiographer together with Boileau, 279. 316. They accompany the king to the siege of Gaud, 280. Racine makes several campaigns, 281. 289. 317. They read their history to the king, 282. Affair of his and Boileau's pensions, 289. His parents respectable; left Racine and his sister, orphans, 297. His education at Beauvais, 297. His predilection for the Greek tragedy, 299. His studies at Port Royal, 299. Removes to the university of Paris, 300. His ode entitled "Nymphes de la Seine," 301. Colbert rewards his early genius. 301. His ambition excited, 301. Visits his uncle, le Père Sconin, at Uzès in Provence, 302. His letters at that time, 302. His dislike of the patois of Provence, 303. His study of Virgil and St. Thomas Aquinas, 303. His "Bath of Venus," a poem, 304. Begins a play of "Theagines and Charicles," 304. He returns to Paris, occupied with poetry and the drama, 304. He writes for Molière, 304. His "Alexandre," 305. It occasions a quarrel betwixt Molière and the aspirant for fame, 306. Racine teaches la Champmélé to recite, 307. Critics attack him keenly, 307. His reply to M. Nicole of Port Royal, 307. 308. Writes his great tragedies, "Britannicus," "Bajazet," "Iphigénie," "Mithridates," "Phèdre," &c., 308-312. Writes "Bérénice" in rivalry with Corneille's tragedy of, 308. His comedy of "Les Plaideurs" the result of a lawsuit in which he had been tired out and foiled, 310. Humour of this comedy, 311. Takes his seat in the French Academy, 312. His "Phèdre" brings him into disputes, which produce desire to lay down his pen, 312. 313. His religious principles, 313. His marriage, 314. Madame Racine's ignorance of poetry, 314. His daughters take the veil, 314. His new mode of life induces him to seek reconciliation with the abbé Arnaud, 315. Succeeds therein, 315. Writes "Athalie," 320. His "Esther," 251. 320. His conversations with Louis XIV. and madame de Maintenon, 320. 323. 325. Dies of an abscess, 326. Displayed the force of friendship in his last parting with Boileau, 326. Critique, 327. "Phèdre" and "Athalie," his best tragedies; "Bérénice" and "Britannicus" the most pleasing, 328. Racine, Louis, son of the tragic poet, I. 291. 307. Rambonet, Prussian councillor of state, II. 39. Rambouillet, Hôtel de, literary society of the, I. 84. Celebrated authors who frequented it, 85. 220. Molière's "Précieuses Ridicules" designed as a satire on, 85. 107.